2014 was a most-improved season for Eugenie Bouchard, on many different levels

The 2014 winner of Most Improved Player on the WTA Tour rose from No. 31 to a year-end No. 7.

But Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard’s improvements this season came on so many levels beyond merely her ranking.

As the pyramid at the top of the game narrows, and improvement comes in smaller and more subtle increments, the lessons learned will serve the 20-year-old well in a 2015 season that should prove to be even more challenging.

Until this year, Bouchard was coming. Now, she’s arrived. Once the hunter, she is now the hunted.

“This year was a good step forward for me,” Bouchard said via conference call from the luxurious Necker Island resort in the British Virgin Islands, where she is participating in a week-long exhibition event hosted by billionaire tennis fan Richard Branson.

When Bouchard was a surprise semi-finalist at the first Grand Slam of the season in Australia all the way back in January, she learned she could play on the big stages.

“I played on Centre Court (Rod Laver Arena) in the quarterfinals, and was able to play a good match,” she said. “I proved to myself I could handle those situations and could stay with the top players in the later stages of Grand Slams, which was so crucial.”

She took that into the French Open and Wimbledon and, in London, took it one step further by reaching the final.

Not one to look back, that was one match Bouchard would love to play again.

“Just to be able to play it, whether I win or lose,” she said. “Just to experience that moment again.”

After Wimbledon, when the attention both on and off the court jumped to another level, Bouchard learned – or was faced with more compelling evidence – that she needs to manage her time as efficiently as she can.

Bouchard also learned a lot about scheduling, about managing her health, and about how best to put together a season when you have a reasonable expectation of making it deep into virtually every tournament you play.

It’s a long roller-coaster ride, a tennis season. You might lose some first rounds, or you might get to the final. But you have to plan for the best-case scenarios.

That’s something that only comes with experience, and 2014 was the first year Bouchard experienced it first-hand

The problem is, she loves to play, loves to compete. Unlike many of the women pros, she’d rather play a tournament than practice.

So the trick in 2015 will be to strike a balance because during the second half of the 2014 season, there was a series of injuries – sore knees, a hamstring, an adductor.

None of the aches and pains were serious enough to take Bouchard off the circuit, but they were enough to put a crimp in her practice and preparation – a shortage that directly affected her confidence.

And they were enough that through that period from early summer to early fall – the meat of the hard-court season including her home event, the Rogers Cup – Bouchard was rarely at 100 per cent.

The basics of her 2015 schedule are already in place. But it sounds as though nothing will be finalized until Bouchard sits down with coach Nick Saviano to make some final decisions.

“Definitely, I think I’ll play less tournaments next year. When you go deeper into the draw, especially at the bigger events, it’s definitely more stressful on the body and the mind,” Bouchard said.

After those heady days in Australia and a whirlwind promotional trip to Singapore, Bouchard returned home to Montreal in early February to lead the Canadian Fed Cup team to a win over Serbia.

The night she clinched the tie, Bouchard took a red-eye to the Middle East for consecutive tournaments in Doha and Dubai.

It didn’t go well.

“I’ll try not to play back-to-back tournaments on opposite sides of the world,” she said. “Just try to have a few more weeks throughout the year, a week here and there of practice and getting ready for the following tournament.”

One thing that will automatically change is that, because of her new status as a top-10 player, Bouchard will have more limitations placed on her in terms of playing the smaller events.

For example, she can only commit to one International-level tournament ($250,000 in total prize money) in each half of the season, – two in total.

Bouchard had scheduled eight in 2014: Acapulco, Portugal, Nürnberg (where she won her first career title), s’Hertogenbosch, Washington, D.C., Hong Kong, Linz and Luxembourg.

She played the first four, was a last-minute withdrawal for the next two, fulfilled her appearance commitment in Linz with one match before withdrawing, and also pulled out of Luxembourg. That won’t be an issue in 2015.

“I’ve already somewhat planned my schedule,” Bouchard said. “I’m going to keep these things in mind and at least learn from this past year, when I could have done better,” she said.

In the meantime, a week on an idyllic island playing in what’s billed as “The Most Exclusive Pro-Am Tennis Event in the World,” is a decent working vacation.

Bouchard’s trainer, Scott Byrnes, is there with her. After what seems like a terribly short “vacation” break that included promotional commitments in Churchill, Manitoba for Coke, a publicity blitz in Toronto and some television appearances in Montreal, Bouchard has been back in the gym for two days, already preparing for what’s to come.